FILE - This undated self-portrait provided by Army Spc. Alexis Hutchinson shows Spc. Hutchinson and her son, Kamani. Hutchinson learned Thursday, Feb. 11. 2010 that she is being discharged from the military instead of facing a court-martial after she refused to deploy to Afghanistan, saying she had no family able to care for her infant son. (AP Photo/Alexis Hutchinson, File) NO SALES

A single mother from Oakland has been discharged from the Army for refusing to leave her infant son behind to go to Afghanistan, but she will not be court-martialed, her attorney said Thursday.

Alexis Hutchinson, 21, had faced criminal charges at a court-martial for refusing to accompany her unit when it deployed in November. Although that is no longer a prospect, Hutchinson has been demoted from specialist to private and will lose all military and veteran benefits, said her attorney, Rae Sue Sussman of San Francisco.

She said Hutchinson had been given an other-than-honorable discharge.

In a statement, Hutchinson said she was "excited to know what will happen to me, and that I am not facing jail. This means I can still be with my son, which is the most important thing."

Hutchinson enlisted in the Army in 2007 straight out of Fremont High School in East Oakland. She was supposed to deploy overseas as a cook with her unit, the 3rd Infantry Division, on Nov. 5. She skipped the flight, she contended, because she had nobody to take care of her then-10-month-old son, Kamani.

Hutchinson told her commanding officers she had arranged for her mother to watch Kamani while she was away for her one-year tour of duty, but when that fell through at the last minute, she could find no alternative.

In January, the Army charged her with four court-martial counts. She could have spent up to two years behind bars had she been convicted of being absent without leave, missing a movement, dereliction of duty and insubordinate conduct toward a noncommissioned officer.

Kevin Larson, spokesman at the Hunter Army Airfield outside Savannah, Ga., where Hutchinson is posted, has said that her commanders offered her child care options but that she refused them.

Base commanders said in a statement Thursday that "the investigation revealed evidence, from both other soldiers and from Pvt. Hutchinson herself, that she didn't intend to deploy to Afghanistan with her unit and deliberately sought ways out of the deployment."

But Sussman said the Army had failed to follow its own regulations mandating steps it should take when soldiers' child care plans fall through.

"It's been an ordeal for (Hutchinson) and her family," Sussman said. "She's happy to definitely know what's happening to her."